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What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In

26 points by pitdesi 15y ago

zach 15y ago
I am blown away to see that Art History cracked the top ten on this list. My mom was an art history major, while I insisted on studying computer science, even though apparently there's no money in it. What a rebel I am! Then again, in part knowing the people my mom went to college with, I can't help but suspect that art history is what you major in if you're a bit aimless, yet are expected by your very rich parents to graduate from college.
- itg 15y ago
  Friends of mine who went the ivy league route could pretty much major in whatever they want and get a great finance/consulting career after they graduate. If you have some relevant internships and do well on interviews, they really don't care about your major, as long as you are smart and personable.
- emmelaich 15y ago
  You might enjoy "How Art History Majors Power the U.S. Economy" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-06/postrel-how-art-history-majors-power-the-u-s-.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-06/postrel-how-art-his...
LearnYouALisp 15y ago
I would like to see how the representation changes within the "top 1%". Maybe in a little while I can put the data into Excel and see.
- yuxt 15y ago
  that would be interesting to see in the span of the last 50 years
  - LearnYouALisp 15y ago
    Oh, sorry, by "representation" I meant the proportion represented in the "top one percent" relative to the proportion in the total or remaining population. For example, are some fields more highly represented at the top than others?
count 15y ago
And to think my friends all chided me for not getting a CS degree and going with Economics instead!
ScottBurson 15y ago
I think we need to be a little careful with this. The article talks about reaching the top 1% as a goal, but if that's a goal held by much more than 1% of the population, a lot of people are going to feel like failures. I don't know that we need to encourage any more of this kind of competition. Far better, I think, would be to talk about the changing economy and what kind of education is most likely to give people a fulfilling career with a reasonably comfortable lifestyle.
kristopolous 15y ago
Econ, IR, Poly Sci; all considered, at least my school, to be the fall-back majors when you didn't have the chops for things like biochemistry or physics. I stuck with Engineering because I wanted to do it and also, because it was hard; thus supposedly more rewarding in the long term. But this is almost telling me that the easy way out was the right thing to do ... confused.
barrybe 15y ago
It's kind of surprising how flat the curve is. Even the "worst" major choices still have plenty of people that make it to the 1%. Of course, nowhere from this data can we conclude that your choice of major has an effect on your future financial success. Just that there's a correlation.
libraryatnight 15y ago
Glad to see some English majors made it :). Now how do I get there?
- wahnfrieden 15y ago
  Some of them made it by inheriting their money from their parents. You could try doing that.
chrisbennet 15y ago
I wonder how many of those 1% actually work in the field that they majored in? For example, how many of the zoology "1 percenters" are actually working in the zoology field?
- tlb 15y ago
  And some work in no field, having inherited money. The interesting statistics would be, what skill sets did people apply to make large amounts of money?
FelixP 15y ago
One thing that might be skewing the results- this chart is based on regularly-taxed income, which would exclude gains made from things like stock options and grants. I would hypothesize that a good chunk of CS and Engineering majors have done very well for themselves, but not from earning salary alone. However, age is probably the single biggest factor here. Older people tend to be much wealthier and earn far more, and some "tech" degrees like CS weren't even offered (or offered widely) until relatively recently. I would also posit that the rise of very wealthy engineers is a relatively recent phenomenon, compounding the age issue.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

26 points by pitdesi 15y ago

zach 15y ago

I am blown away to see that Art History cracked the top ten on this list. My mom was an art history major, while I insisted on studying computer science, even though apparently there's no money in it. What a rebel I am! Then again, in part knowing the people my mom went to college with, I can't help but suspect that art history is what you major in if you're a bit aimless, yet are expected by your very rich parents to graduate from college.

itg 15y ago
Friends of mine who went the ivy league route could pretty much major in whatever they want and get a great finance/consulting career after they graduate. If you have some relevant internships and do well on interviews, they really don't care about your major, as long as you are smart and personable.
emmelaich 15y ago
You might enjoy "How Art History Majors Power the U.S. Economy" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-06/postrel-how-art-history-majors-power-the-u-s-.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-06/postrel-how-art-his...

LearnYouALisp 15y ago

I would like to see how the representation changes within the "top 1%". Maybe in a little while I can put the data into Excel and see.

yuxt 15y ago
that would be interesting to see in the span of the last 50 years
- LearnYouALisp 15y ago
  Oh, sorry, by "representation" I meant the proportion represented in the "top one percent" relative to the proportion in the total or remaining population. For example, are some fields more highly represented at the top than others?

count 15y ago

And to think my friends all chided me for not getting a CS degree and going with Economics instead!

ScottBurson 15y ago

I think we need to be a little careful with this. The article talks about reaching the top 1% as a goal, but if that's a goal held by much more than 1% of the population, a lot of people are going to feel like failures. I don't know that we need to encourage any more of this kind of competition. Far better, I think, would be to talk about the changing economy and what kind of education is most likely to give people a fulfilling career with a reasonably comfortable lifestyle.

kristopolous 15y ago

Econ, IR, Poly Sci; all considered, at least my school, to be the fall-back majors when you didn't have the chops for things like biochemistry or physics. I stuck with Engineering because I wanted to do it and also, because it was hard; thus supposedly more rewarding in the long term. But this is almost telling me that the easy way out was the right thing to do ... confused.

barrybe 15y ago

It's kind of surprising how flat the curve is. Even the "worst" major choices still have plenty of people that make it to the 1%. Of course, nowhere from this data can we conclude that your choice of major has an effect on your future financial success. Just that there's a correlation.

libraryatnight 15y ago

Glad to see some English majors made it :). Now how do I get there?

wahnfrieden 15y ago
Some of them made it by inheriting their money from their parents. You could try doing that.

chrisbennet 15y ago

I wonder how many of those 1% actually work in the field that they majored in? For example, how many of the zoology "1 percenters" are actually working in the zoology field?

tlb 15y ago
And some work in no field, having inherited money. The interesting statistics would be, what skill sets did people apply to make large amounts of money?

FelixP 15y ago

One thing that might be skewing the results- this chart is based on regularly-taxed income, which would exclude gains made from things like stock options and grants. I would hypothesize that a good chunk of CS and Engineering majors have done very well for themselves, but not from earning salary alone. However, age is probably the single biggest factor here. Older people tend to be much wealthier and earn far more, and some "tech" degrees like CS weren't even offered (or offered widely) until relatively recently. I would also posit that the rise of very wealthy engineers is a relatively recent phenomenon, compounding the age issue.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]